


Both Sides Now

by paradiamond



Category: Longmire (TV)
Genre: F/F, not season 5 compliant - Freeform, pre Cady/Vic, vic pov
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-28
Updated: 2016-09-28
Packaged: 2018-08-18 10:12:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,206
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8158487
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/paradiamond/pseuds/paradiamond
Summary: Vic never really moves out.





	

“Did you get the milk?” Cady asks, not looking up from the paper in front of her. They’re sitting at the kitchen table, the setting a mix of food and paper. 

Vic freezes, a piece of toast dangling from her hand. “Uh, no?” 

Cady rolls her eyes, but Vic is relieved to see the gesture is intentional and more fond than angry. “Ok.” 

Vic holds up her hands, toast and all, in fake surrender. “I’ll get it today councillor, I promise.” 

“Thanks, I don’t know when I’ll get out of the house today.” 

Vic casts a glance at the files balanced precariously on the counter. “Yeah, about that. Are you at least gonna put on some big girl clothes today?” 

“You don’t need pants to review cases.” Cady sticks her bare leg out from under the table and wiggles her foot. 

Vic snorts and stuffs the rest of the toast in her mouth. “Guess I got into the wrong field.” 

Cady makes at face at Vic’s choice to talk with food in her mouth. “You’d be a terrible lawyer.”

“And you’d be a terrible cop,” Vic shoots back. 

Cady tilts her head, trying to look cute and succeeding. “That’s what they said about Ferg, and now look at him.” 

Vic grins and leans back in her chair. “Ok fine, you would be an adequate cop, like Ferg.” Then she dodges the newspaper flying at her head. 

“Go defend us please, I have work to do,” Cady says, trying to pull the newspaper back to her with her foot. Vic scoops it up and drops it down in front of her. 

“Fine, I guess I’ll go.” Vic gets up and opens the fridge to put the loaf of bread back. She blinks and then spins around. “Hey, there’s still milk in here!” 

“Yeah,” Cady says without looking up again. “I knew you would forget, so I borrowed some.” 

Vic huffs and puts a hand on her hip. “Gee, thanks.”

“Well you did!” Cady insists. Vic starts edging out of the room. She really does have to go, even if she doesn’t want to. 

“Fair enough,” Vic says, and Cady smiles. Vic bites her lip to keep from smiling back too widely. She doesn’t want Cady to know she can get away with these things. “Ok, see you later.” 

“With milk!” 

Vic rolls her eyes. “Yeah, with milk.” 

Cady laughs and waves her away. “Thanks again, bye.” 

“Bye,” Vic says, already most of the way down the hall. She grabs her jacket and keys and practically runs out the door. Cady doesn’t live far from the rest of town, which is nice. Vic’s old house was nearly out of the county. When she gets her own place she wants it to be close. Not that she’s looking very hard anymore. 

Sometimes she might mention it in a vague way, the way she used to talk about moving out of Absaroka, but she never makes a move to do anything about it and Cady never says anything either. Splitting the rent and the fridge space and the hot water became normal months ago. They move around each other fluidly, more easily than either of them would have ever thought possible. It’s nice, and nice things are in short supply in Vic’s life. So she stays. 

The last of the milk is gone when she gets home seven hours later. Vic leans around the doorway to see Cady sitting on the couch. “Good thing I got more,” she says, holding the milk up so Cady can see it. 

Cady hums but doesn’t look up, flipping another page in her file. She still hasn’t gotten dressed and her red hair hangs down limply around her face. Vic stares at her for a few more seconds before retreating back into the kitchen. She puts the milk away but takes out the leftover pasta. 

Taking care of people has never been her strong suit, but ever since she moved in with Cady she’d been learning. Part of it is just reciprocation. Cady is nice to an extreme Vic hadn’t really experienced before. She’s always reaching out, always trying to make things ok. Whenever they have a bad case, Cady comes to her and tries to make her feel better. Vic always lets her, though she’s honestly pretty used to it by now. It doesn’t bother her much unless she knows the person, but that’s not something she wants Cady to ever understand that about her. She shakes her head and concentrates on the food. 

In less than twenty minutes she is braving the living room again, plates in hand. 

Vic nudges Cady with her foot, looking for signs of life. “Bad case?”

Cady blinks and looks up. “Pretty much always, why?”

“You only eat cereal for a meal when you have a bad case or someone does something stupid, usually me. So I’m hoping it’s the case,” Vic says with a smirk and hands her the plate. 

Cady smiles up at her. “It’s usually not you, actually.” She takes a bite of the pasta and makes a face. “Did you, uh, heat this in the microwave?” 

Vic shrugs and sits down with her own plate, throwing her feet up onto the table. “Yeah.” 

“Ok, thanks,” Cady says, not at all convincingly. Vic rolls her eyes.

“You can’t complain that the food isn’t properly heated if you can’t even be bothered to feed yourself.” 

“That’s fair.” Cady nods and takes another bite, doing better at keeping her reactions to herself this time, but Vic still sees through her.

“Fine I’ll make you a deal,” Vic says and Cady raises an eyebrow at her. “I’ll cook it properly, on the stove, like a grownup, and when it’s done you stop working for the night and drink wine with me.” 

Cady bites her lip, but nods. “Thanks.” She hands her plate back to Vic, who takes it with only minimal eye rolling. 

“Whatever,” Vic says, already walking their plates back to the kitchen. “I just don’t want you to die from starvation, I’d have nowhere to live!” 

“Again,” Cady comments mildly, and Vic sticks her tongue out at her. She’s the only one that Vic will tolerate divorce jokes from. It takes half an hour for the food to be ready this time, but Vic has to admit Cady is right, so she does. 

“It is better this way,” Vic says, shoveling food down her throat. She points her fork at Cady. “And it’s better to have the person you live with actually looking at you in the face too.” 

“You sound like my dad,” Cady teases and Vic makes a face, wine glass halfway lifted. 

“Wonderful.” 

“You two are pretty close right?” Cady asks, her own wine glass dangling from her fingers. They had gotten through most of the bottle already. Then she makes a face. “No wait, never mind.” 

Vic laughs. “Ok first of all, what the hell? And second of all no, not really. Not the way you mean.” 

“Really?” Cady tilts her head, then she straightens it again. “No, I don’t want to know.” 

“It’s really not like that.” Vic shrugs. “Like, I know why you think that, but it’s not happening. I don’t want it to.” 

“Well, not anymore.” Cady tries to shrug but it comes out as more of a wince. “Sorry, ok.” 

“Stop that, or I’ll throw one of these precious files at you and then all your organizing will be ruined,” Vic threatens and Cady puts up her hands. 

“Ok, ok. Sorry.” 

Vic narrows her eyes at her until Cady laughs. She laughs too and stretches her foot across the couch to poke Cady with it. “Now I want to ask you embarrassing questions. What’s been going on in your life?”

“This.” Cady sweeps her hand in an exaggerated gesture to the files scattered around the room. Her expression softens. “You.” 

Vic rolls her eyes. “God that’s depressing. Ok, change of topic from our current sad sex lives to our old, exciting ones.” She settles back against the arm of the couch. “Tell me a story Cady.” 

Cady raises an eyebrow at her. “About sex? Just sex, generally?” 

“Yeah like, exciting sex stories,” Vic says, sitting up straight. Cady leans away slightly, eyes wide. “Come on.” 

Cady flushes, though it might be the wine. “Uh...”

“Ok I’ll start.” Vic sets her wine glass down. “One time I had sex in an elevator.” 

Cady scrunches up her face. “That’s kind of gross,” Vic scoffs and swats lightly at her arm, but Cady dodges, grinning now. “Fine, tell me your weird sex story then.”

Vic leans away again, arms crossed. “Why? Are you going to criticize my choices?”

“Nope.” Cady shakes her head, her hair coming unhooked from behind her ear. “Having sex in a public space is totally normal and not illegal at all, Mrs. Officer.” 

“Thank you.” Vic uncrosses her arms. “Ok so, I was getting into the elevator with Sam-”

“Is this a guy Sam or a girl Sam?” 

Vic blinks, caught off guard. “Guy, obviously.” 

Cady raises an eyebrow at her. “Alright.” 

“Right,” Vic says, completely taken off track now. She lets her arms drop. “So, wait. What?” 

Cady just blinks over at her, all innocent. “Sam can be a girl’s name too.” 

“I know that, but why would I have a sex story about a girl?”

Cady just shrugs and settles further down into the couch. “I don’t know, some people do. I’m a lawyer, I like clarity.” 

Vic stares, suddenly hyper aware of Cady’s near nakedness, her own tank top, and their general proximity. Cady sips from her glass, oblivious. She licks her bottom lip, and Vic regains herself. “Uh, so, do you?”

Cady shifts on the couch and looks away. “Have sex with women?”

Vic can’t stop staring. “Yeah.”

Cady shrugs, trying and failing to seem casual. “Not recently.” 

“I, uh, I didn’t know.” Vic knows she should at least make an effort to not stare and to behave like a normal person but she just can’t. The best she can do is keep her eyes on Cady’s face, a thousand questions running through her mind. 

Cady starts to look really uncomfortable. “Oh, well, I didn’t think you would mind-”

“No, I mean it’s fine, obviously, I’m just surprised.” Vic waves a hand, a little frantically. She grins and picks up the wine glass again to have something to do with her hands. “You probably have better stories than I do.” 

Cady definitely blushes this time. “Well I don’t know about _better_ ,” she says, and then drains the rest of her wine in one gulp. 

Vic leans forward. “College? Did you have a girlfriend?”

“Yeah.” Cady ducks her head and smiles shyly. “And no, just some close friends.” 

“Oh.” It’s Vic’s turn to blush. “Wow.” 

Cady laughs, bright spots appearing on her cheeks. “We don’t really have to talk about this…”

“No I want to,” Vic says, maybe a little too quickly. “I mean, if you do. It’s good either way. Fine.” 

Cady is just staring at her blankly, Vic kind of wants to sink into the couch. Eventually Cady responds, relaxing again. “Ok.” 

“So?” Vic asks, grinning. She reaches over and nudges Cady with her foot. “Want to share?”

Cady blushes again, but she does end up telling Vic about two of her ‘friends’ from school, getting more and comfortable and descriptive as she goes, and Vic hangs onto her every word.

***

What should be awkward between them somehow just isn’t. 

They wake up the next morning still on the couch, curled up like little kids, and laugh it off. They bump into each other while scrounging for breakfast food, and Cady pretends to be shocked when she sees the milk. Cady gets back to work and Vic goes to the station, feeling lightened.

“Morning, Walt.” 

He glances up at her from behind his desk. “Technically morning hasn’t started yet, you’re early.” 

Vic shrugs. “Just woke up early, thought I’d head in. Cady doesn’t really like it when I get under her feet when she’s working.” 

“She said that?” Walt asks, one eyebrow raised.

“Nope.” Vic leans against the doorframe. “She’s too nice, but I can tell.” 

Walt chuckles, leaning back in his chair. “Sounds like it’s going well with you two.” 

Vic finds herself smiling. “Yeah, you know it’s going really good.”

“Really?” He cocks his head, seeming genuinely interested.

Vic shrugs and leans against the door frame. “Yeah. Why, did you think we would fight?”

“Maybe a bit,” Walt admits. “I’m glad to hear it though.”

“Well Cady’s been great. You know, it was always really hard for me to make friends with girls for some reason? But with her it’s great.” 

Walt sends her a dry smile. “Can’t imagine why.” 

Vic laughs her way back to her desk, and smiles when Cady texts her. 

_Hey Vic,_ Vic rolls her eyes. Cady always starts her texts like that, with some kind of greeting. If Walt had a phone he would probably do the same thing. _I’m going to the store later, want anything?_

Vic answers right away. **well I’m pretty sure we’re out of wine**

_No kidding. Want to come with me?_

“What are you smiling at?” Ferg asks, and Vic whips her head up. He smirks at her. “New man?”

Vic blinks, then she laughs. “No, it’s just Cady.” 

“Oh,” Ferg says, a little slowly. His gaze flickers down to her phone and then back up. “Ok.” 

“Yeah.” Vic ignores him in favor of the phone again. 

**you just don’t want to carry the stuff**

_I plead the fifth._

Vic shakes her head and puts the phone down, deciding to get some work done. She does all her filing and ignores all the tension that seems to be a permanent part of their office. If Ferg wants to stare at her in a completely obvious way, that’s his problem. The day breezes by without any awful or exciting events, but Vic barely gets to leave her desk. By the time it’s time to go, she’s eager to go shopping just to have something to do. 

She fishes her phone out of her pocket as she’s walking out of the building. 

**Did you wait for me?**

“Yes.” 

Vic jumps, her hand flying to her chest. “Cady!” 

“What?” Cady grins at her from the bench outside of the building. “You can’t blame me, it was perfect timing.” 

Vic rolls her eyes, fighting a smile. “Hilarious. Are you here to terrorize me or to see your dad?” 

Cady stands with a smile and tucks her perfect hair behind her ear. “Both, and you deserve it for scaring me so bad on Halloween.” 

“That’s fair.” Vic grins and pulls the door open, stepping back for Cady to pass through. “Alright, go talk to boss man, then we can go to the store.” 

Cady snorts and starts up the stairs. “Please tell me you actually call him that.”

“Absolutely not and don’t tell him I did.” Vic says, following her. 

“Oh I won’t.” Cady laughs and turns on her heel on the top step, looking down at Vic. Smiling at her. The light of the sun catches in her hair, making it seem even redder. Vic almost trips on the stairs but recovers, her hand gripping the railing. 

“Whoops.” She laughs it off. Cady rolls her eyes, but Vic can see real concern in them. 

“Watch out, I need you for the rent remember?” Cady teases, still looking the same. 

Vic’s hand goes to the back of her head. “Yeah, well, I need you too, so.” 

Cady’s smile widens and she turns away, leaving Vic standing there, on the stairs, like an idiot. She blinks, confused with herself. The door closes and Vic still doesn’t move. 

“Well I guess that makes it every deputy in the department,” Ferg says and Vic jumps, whipping around to glare at him from below. He’s staring down at her from the other landing, arms crossed on the railing. She stomps her way up the last of the stairs. 

“What?”

Ferg just raises an eyebrow at her. “Cady.” 

Vic scoffs. “What about Cady?”

Ferg gives her a dry look but doesn’t say anything, so Vic goes back into the office, her face burning from a feeling she can’t place. She holds her cool hand on her hot face, chiding herself for letting Cady’s stories impact her like this, impact their relationship. That must be all it is. She feels a little guilty, but then she’s better when Cady comes back.

“Ready to go?” 

Vic smiles back at her and stands. “Sure thing.” 

They go back down the stairs together, Vic berating herself the whole way for her moment of weakness. She shouldn’t suddenly get weird around Cady just because she has some sexual frustration and Cady had some very sexy stories to tell. They’re friends, and Vic doesn’t want to ruin that. 

She talks to Cady just like normal in the car and in the store and watches herself for any kind of weird reaction that might betray her. It doesn’t come. Vic smiles at her friend as they unpack the groceries together. Cady puts everything in its proper place, just as she likes it, and Vic mostly tries to stay out of the way. She’d never been this organized, but Cady had changed a lot for her already. Maybe one day she’ll have a system too, once she moves back into her own place. 

Vic frowns at the thought, then shakes her head to clear it. She’ll move out eventually, but not yet. Cady interrupts her thoughts, touching her shoulder as she passes by. 

“Did you remember to clean the shower this week?” 

Vic rolls her eyes dramatically when she’s sure Cady is looking. “Yup, I’m not an animal you know.” 

Cady shrugs and bends over to put the vegetables in the fridge. Vic looks away. “Sorry, I’m just saying you can be a little stingy with cleaning.” 

Vic hops up onto the counter and swings her feet lightly, her feet bouncing against the wooden cabinets. “Well if I’m dirty, you’re messy.” 

Cady whips around so fast her hair moves in a dramatic wave. “I am not,” she says, eyes wide and sounding genuinely offended. She straightens up and walks over to where Vic is sitting, standing almost in between her legs. 

Vic points to the living room, which is strewn with legal papers again. Cady stares into the space blankly for a long moment, a guilty look taking over her face until she looks back at Vic and bursts out laughing. Vic laughs with her and Cady doubles over, reaches out to grab her shoulder, holding onto Vic for support. Her hand is warm, and nice against Vic’s skin. Vic leans into the touch, grins, and resolutely doesn’t feel anything other than the usual friendly affection. 

“It’s ok, I won’t tell,” she says conspiratorially. 

Cady leans in, and for a terrifying moment Vic has no idea what’s about to happen, but Cady just bounces their foreheads together and winks. “Good. I trust you.” 

Vic smiles. “Me too.” 

But her heart keeps pounding even when Cady steps away.


End file.
